His New Family
by Ditzy 1978
Summary: How do Harry and Severus deal with the consequences of the war. HPSS


Title: His New Family

Author: Ditzy

Rating: Pg-13

Pairing: HarrySeverus

Disclaimer: If they were mine I wouldn't have to write a disclaimer.

Part of the Dusk Till Dawn Fuh-Q-Fest

The final battle had gone well for the side of the light. The majority of the injuries had been minor and the medi-wizards and medi-witches had been able to fix the injuries very quickly. There also had been very few fatalities. Remus was reinstated as Defence against the Dark Arts teacher and Harry restarted the DA at the beginning of Sixth year.

So when Voldemort attacked Hogwarts at the end of Harry's Seventh year, Hogwarts had a well trained army waiting for him. Of cause, if he hadn't attacked straight after the school exams, they may not have been so ready. However Voldemort was a creature of habit and so kept to his pattern of attacking Harry at the end of the school year.

Dumbledore and Harry had had to make a guess at what day Voldemort would attack as Snape had been exposed as a spy: Voldemort had for a small time been using Snape to feed the light false information. Dumbledore worked this out pretty quickly and did not allow Severus to leave Hogwarts from that point on. Instead, Severus began to help Harry with his training to bring down the Dark Lord.

Harry and Dumbledore had made sure that the only students fighting in the battle were willing and were in their Sixth year or above, so the majority of the school were safely locked up in Hogwarts during the battle. Most of the Sixth and Seventh years decided to fight. The vast majority on the side of the light, even most of the Slytherins. The only Slytherins who did not fight on Harry's side were the ones with Death Eater parents. Unlike the negative press that the Slytherins got, not many of them had Death eater parents.

The main problem at the end of the battle was the last curse that Voldemort aimed at Harry. Voldemort had finally worked out that the Unforgivable did not really work on Harry and tried another way of killing him. De-aging spells required a lot of power; most wizards and witches could not cast them at all, and those who could were weakened for days afterward. The more years of de-aging, the more energy it took. Voldemort had put enough power into the spell that it would kill anyone who was born in or after 1980, as they would be de-aged to pre-existence. This would have been enough to kill Harry if the spell had hit him.

Most people - including Voldemort - had a habit of forgetting that while Harry was brave, he was not stupid. When Harry saw the spell coming towards him he did the smartest thing possible to do at the time. He knew he couldn't outrun the spell indefinitely. He just had to try and confuse the spell into hitting something else. He noticed that Draco was fighting against Ginny at that point and was just about to defeat her… so decided to kill two birds with one stone.

After the spell hit Draco, Voldemort was weak enough for Harry to kill. The Death Eaters tried to stop Harry from being able to get to him, but they were unable to stop Harry from using the worst Unforgivable to kill him.

Voldemort's spell did not kill Draco. While Harry was one of the youngest kids in his year, Draco was one of the oldest; he was born in September 1979.

So one of the main problems at the end of the war was what to do with a now-newborn Draco. While both of Draco's parents had survived the final battle, both were sentenced to Azkaban. There was no way that either of them could ague that they had been under the Imperious Curse this time.

Many argued that Draco should be put in there with his parents, as he had been fighting on the side of the Dark when he was hit with the de-ageing curse and did not deserve pity and consideration just because he was now a baby. But Dumbledore managed to convince the Wizengamot to treat Draco humanely as what he was, as baby.

So Draco was put up for adoption. The problem: no one wanted to adopt someone who before the curse had been a Death Eater in training. While newborns were usually easy to find parents for, only one person had tried to adopt him three months after he was officially put up for adoption.

Severus was Draco's Godfather, and while he was upset by the direction that Draco had chosen to take as a young man, he still cared for him and was perfectly willing to take on the responsibility of raising him. In Severus' role as a spy he had had to reinforce the prejudiced ideals of Lucius in his role of Godfather the first time around. He would no longer have to do that if he got to raise Draco this time.

The problem was that the wizarding social services were just as prejudiced as Severus was when he was a young man under the Dark Lord's service. They were just prejudiced in a different direction. They had decided that Draco could not be adopted by a Slytherin and certainly not by an ex-Death Eater. Dumbledore argued with them that Severus would be able to understand Draco in a way that few others could, and that he would be able to steer Draco in a positive direction. The arguments fell on deaf ears. So after three months, Draco was still in a wizard orphanage.

"I've got to do something about this, Hermione. Things can't stay like this."

"What do you mean, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"This whole Draco situation, he has to be adopted soon. I've no idea why the orphanage wouldn't let Severus adopt him. They would both be happy and I know Draco wouldn't turn out they way he had before," Harry said.

"Why do you care mate?" Ron challenged. "Draco has been a git to us since the first day of school. The curse hit him while he was trying to kill Ginny. I don't care what happens to him, as far as I'm concerned he should be with his parents."

Harry realised that he had to be careful in how he answered this question. Ron was still justifiably angry with Draco for trying to kill his little sister. But Draco was now a baby, and as much as Harry had disliked school-aged Draco—_hate_ was reserved for Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort—he did not believe that Azkaban was the place for any child.

"I know why you hate him Ron, I didn't like that Draco myself. But he is a baby now, he's blank parchment. He has none of the prejudices that he had before. He could now be brought up to be a good person. It wouldn't even be rehabilitation as there's nothing for him to unlearn."

Harry took a deep breath before continuing, "I also think that every child deserves to be loved unconditionally. Snape does love him—in his own way—which would help him to become a good person. He won't be if he is raised in that orphanage. He'll grow up angry and resentful, and that will lead him to becoming dark again."

"Yeah, intellectually I know that you are right, but it's hard to put what he did to Ginny behind me," Ron said. "You know there were only three people that were injured to the point that the medi-wizards and healers could not completely cure. Ginny won't be able to walk properly for the rest of her life!"

"What he did was terrible, Ron. But Harry is still right—Draco needs a family to make sure that he doesn't end up being what he was again," Hermione explained, sounding very sympathetic to Ron. She turned to Harry. "So what are you planning to do, Harry?"

"I'm thinking about adopting him myself."

"What! You can't do that!" Ron exclaimed.

Harry looked at Ron and said emphatically, "I know that you don't want me to, Ron. I understand why. But I can't watch another child go through a similar childhood as mine and not do anything about it."

"Are you sure that you can though, Harry?" Hermione said, looking more concerned than Harry had ever remembered seeing. "If you aren't, then you shouldn't do it. You would have to let go of any resentment that you have against him."

"I know," Harry sighed. "I'm going to look at it as though Draco is a whole new person that I've never met. Since he's a baby, it should be easy."

"Listen, Harry," Ron said. "I'll support you if it's what you really want to do. And I'll do my best to let go of my hatred against Draco. But this isn't your responsibility, Harry. You've shouldered more responsibility than anyone our age should have. And you know that people will talk. They will probably think that this is an indication that you are going over to the Dark or something." Ron said in one of his rare moments of true maturity.

Harry laughed. "You know, you're probably right. _The Daily Prophet _will look for any reason to believe that I am turning evil. But I'm not, nor do I want Draco to be. I don't agree with the way the Ministry is treating the Slytherins since the end of the war. I don't want them to feel victimised and turn evil just because everyone thinks they will. I think that if Draco isn't treated right he could become a dark leader when he grows up. I can do something to stop that, so I'm going to," Harry said in that alpha male, leader voice that he perfected in his first year at Hogwarts.

The Ministry were surprised at Harry's application to adopt Draco. It was well know within the Ministry that he and Draco had never really got along. However it didn't take a lot of effort for Harry to convince them to let him adopt Draco.

This actually annoyed Harry. They had no evidence to show that Harry wouldn't abuse the child horribly as revenge for their past. They just handed him over without even thinking about it—while there was no indication whatsoever that Severus would ever hurt Draco. But because of Severus' house affiliation and his distant past, they wouldn't let him take Draco.

When Severus found out that Harry was planning to adopt Draco, _he_ asked all the questions that the Ministry should have asked. It took a couple of hours of explanation, under Veritaserum, before Severus believed that Harry truly intended to take care of Draco and wasn't adopting him as some bizarre form of revenge.

Harry even invited Severus' involvement. "I really want you to be part of this. It should be you raising him, not me," Harry explained. "I swear that I will do the best job that I can. I don't believe that anyone should be treated badly. I was emotionally abused as a child and would never do that to any child. But I still don't think that I could do as good a job as you, because you have the advantage of already caring for him. I truly believe that I will love him soon, but I can't really say that for now. But I do care about his well being."

"I'm not sure that I would be any better than you are, Harry. You are right, I do care (deeply?) for him," Severus said. "You may not know that I am Draco's Godfather. But that does not make me naturally good with children, as you should know."

"You're not as bad with kids when you're not playing a role," Harry pointed out. "In our DA meetings you weren't bad at all. I think you're used to pretending to hate kids and be awful to them that you forget that you can actually be quite nice when you want to be."

Severus' lips twitched upward slightly at Harry's defence of him. "I did exaggerate how bad I was with children. I also had to be unfair to those not in my house to keep my façade with the Dark Lord. But the truth is I am not good with children. I don't know what you're like with really young children, but I have seen you with the First years. You're really good with them and I believe you will be good with babies as well."

"I'll do my best. But just think: if we do it together we could do the job better. You know that from the war—when we put in some effort we actually make a really good team. We could prove _The Daily Prophet_ wrong and bring up Draco to be a good kid, a good man."

"But I was involved in raising Draco the first time around and he turned out to be someone who would join the Death Eaters." Severus said in a low voice, "I had hoped that he would have made the choice to turn from the dark, though there was no real reason to think that he would have."

"You couldn't have been the Godfather that you wanted to be for Draco because Lucius would have taken him away from your influence if you were. You know that as well as I do." Harry pressed on, "You can now do the job that you wanted to do. And I need someone to make sure that I am doing a good job."

Severus considered Harry for a moment before he answered, "I will help you in any way that I can, and will endeavour to do the best job myself. But you do realise that when _The Daily Prophet_ finds out that I will be helping you parent Draco, they will think that you are about to turn into the next Dark Lord."

Harry shrugged. "Ron said the same thing. Then again, they change their mind about me more often than the weather. I don't care about what they think about me anymore."

"Daddy, daddy! Uncle Sev'rus is here."

Draco Potter's third birthday was attended by everyone who cared about him: his dad, his Godfather, and all of the Weasleys including Ginny, who had found it remarkably easy to forgive Draco for what his adult self had done to her. Hermione was also there–she was now a Weasley.

"What have you got me for my birfday, Uncle Sev'rus?"

A hint of amusement flashed in Severus' eyes—unusual for the reserved wizard. "I see that some things never change then."

The child's broom turned out to be Draco's favourite present, along with the child Quidditch set that he received from his father. Child Quidditch was very similar to adult Quidditch; the differences being that the Quaffle was much smaller so it was easier for a child to hold the ball, the Golden Snitch was slower, and there were no Bludgers.

The party lasted until around seven in the evening. By that time Draco had done what all three-year-olds should do on their birthdays—ate far too much jelly and ice cream and too much cake. Though he had probably lost weight from running around and playing so much, especially with a house full of people there just to see him.

Which was why he didn't even need a bed time story to help him get to sleep that night. After thanking his dad for giving him the "best day eva" and giving him a hug, he went to sleep almost instantly.

"You know, Harry, by the time he was three last time his pronunciation was perfect," Severus said. "Though I suspect that this really is the best day he has ever had. Lucius certainly never did anything like this for him. I also suspect that the reason that his speech was so perfect back then was that he was punished when it wasn't.

"So all in all, Potter, I think that you are doing a pretty good job. Certainly a far better job than his biological parents did." Severus then abruptly dropped the hint of approval in his voice. "The only problem I can see on the horizon is that if you continue to raise him in the same way as you have been, he will end up in Gryffindor." Thankfully at this point Harry could tell that the revulsion on Severus' face was completely faked.

"Don't worry about that. The only way that he won't end up in Slytherin is if he chooses not to be. He is already extremely ambitious."

"You can't choose what house you are in, Harry. The hat chooses for you," Severus said.

"But if you really object to the house that the hat wants to put you in, it will rehouse you," Harry explained matter-of-factly. "If I hadn't objected to being put in Slytherin I would have been one."

"I'm surprised that Dumbledore hasn't truly explained this to you. While it is obvious that you have more Slytherin traits than most of my Slytherins have, you are a Gryffindor. You were housed there because it was where you belong. The hat just enjoys playing with people sometimes. Think about it, it's the only thing that the hat gets to do all year."

"So why did it say that I would have done well in Slytherin?" Harry asked.

"As I said, you do have more Slytherin traits than most of my Slytherins, so yes, you would have done very well as a Slytherin. However, you did better in Gryffindor than you would have in my house. You were where you belonged."

Severus cast his eye towards the direction of Draco's room. "You are right though about Draco. He will again be placed in Slytherin. Though he won't be the sort of Slytherin I would be embarrassed to look after this time. For one, he will not believe all those pure-blood superiority nonsense."

"I hope not. I'm trying to teach him to love rather than hate. Not to mention how much he loves Hermione now."

"Exactly." Severus paused slightly. "Harry, I've got a huge amount of marking to do this week. Will it be convenient for me to pick up Draco next weekend instead?"

"Of cause, I'll see you next weekend."

"Draco, hurry up. As shocking as this must sound, the Hogwarts Express will not wait just because you aren't ready to board it."

"I don't see why I can't just go with you."

"One, this is the first time that you will be meeting the rest of the children in your year. Two, I don't want the rest of the kids to think that you will be treated differently because you're my son and I'm teaching you, which by the way you won't be. Third, I'm Apparating and then walking the rest of the way there. And as you won't be able to Apparate for the next six years, you'll just have to catch the train like everyone else."

"What's the point of your dad being the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher if you can't get anything out if it?" Draco whined.

"Believe it or not, Draco, I'm not doing this job for you. Remus has gotten too ill to teach and Minerva offered me the job. As you will no longer be at home there was no reason for me to say no to the job. It wasn't some devious plan to make sure that you had an advantage to the rest of the kids in the school."

"Fine, I'm ready now anyway."

"Ok. And by the way, leave your broom. First years aren't allowed to have them."

"How did you know…"

"One day you will realise that I know you better than you know yourself. There was no way that you wouldn't have tried to smuggle it to school." Harry smirked. "Are you ready now? Let's go."

Unlike Harry's trips to Kings Cross and onto the Hogwarts Express, Draco's trip was fairly uneventful. While they had to run to catch the train, nothing much else happened.

Harry discovered that Apparating to Hogwarts was really the best way to get there, even if it meant he had to walk the short distance from the Forbidden Forest to the castle. No unscheduled stops on the way; no house elves trying to stop him from getting on the train. Apparating had become Harry's favourite form of travel, even outstripping his broom, which he was still rather fond of.

A voice greeted him from behind. "Good morning, Mr. Potter. How are you this morning? Are you ready to take on the task of trying to force some knowledge into the Dunderheads we are forced to teach?"

Harry knew the owner of the voice without needing to turn around. "Morning Severus. And neither of us is being forced to teach. One day you'll have to admit that you actually love this job. If you didn't you would have left years ago."

"What's scary is that you actually believe that. You believe that we are not being manipulated into this."

"If Albus was still the Headmaster I would agree with you. But Minerva is not in the same league of manipulation as Albus. If anything, both of us are far better at that than she is. So at this point the only reason we are here is because we wish to be." Harry turned and grinned at Severus. "However, you can bury your head in the sand and pretend that isn't true if you wish."

Severus returned the gesture with a smirk. "Fine. Just don't tell anyone that I want to be here. It would ruin the image I have worked hard to cultivate."

Harry's grin grew even wider. "I won't tell anyone," he promised. "Though I think more people have worked it out than you would think. Anyway, I better go. I want to be ready for the pupils' arrival. I assume that my office is the same as the Remus' was, though I actually don't know where I live in the castle."

"Yes, your office is Remus' old one. I'll show you your quarters, Minerva had made the effort to asked me to. You know she still believes that we hate each other. Actually, all of the teachers who know us both still believe that." Severus raised an eyebrow. "You do realise that we could have a lot of fun with this?"

"You want us to pretend that we still hate each other as a joke? Isn't that a little immature?"

"Of course it is. But we work in a school so we can be a little immature. Besides, Minerva and I pretended to hate each other for years before she became Headmistress. It's a time-honoured tradition that the head of Slytherin house and the head of Gryffindor house pretend to hate each other. While normally the other teachers are in on the joke I think that it would be fun if this time they were not."

"Don't you think that it would cause difficulties?" Harry asked, though at this point it was becoming obvious that he was growing to like the idea.

"If it does then we'll call off the joke. I of cause don't want this to get in the way of either of our jobs. But really, we have to get our fun in somewhere, and as I said it is traditional for the heads of our houses to not get on—or at least pretend not to."

Harry needed no further convincing. "Ok, I'm in."

"Listen you two, I'm not letting you out until you have sorted out your differences," Minerva said in her sternest voice. "I care about the two of you, and I hate watching you being so cruel to each other. You have a lot in common, which you'll find out if you would just talk to each other."

Minerva got up from her chair and made for the door. "I'll be back tomorrow to see if you have sorted anything out. If you haven't then I'll leave you in there until you do. And remember it's the beginning of the Easter holidays and Draco has gone to the Weasleys, so no one will know anything about you being locked in here until the end of the holidays. So don't bother sitting here and waiting for me to give in." With that, Minerva left.

"Oops, I think we took the joke a little bit too far," Harry said while laughing.

"While I hate to admit this, it seems that I most agree with you. I apologise for getting you into this silly joke, Harry."

"No, it was fun," Harry smiled. "But from this point on, it is totally over."

"Oh I'm not arguing."

The next few hours were filled with a lot of friendly talk. While they had got on very well for the past decade, most of their conversations had been about Draco. Even their mock bantering had led only to shared moments of amusement afterward, not hear-to-heart talks. They actually still knew very little about each other.

Severus learned some of Harry's motivations for the things that he had done while he had been at school. He learned more about Harry's background. He learned how much he had misjudged Harry in the past. Which was strange for him, because he had thought that he had already accepted that he had misjudged Harry.

Harry learned how similar Severus' and his childhoods had been. How that had been a motivating force in how they both now parented Draco. He found out what it was that made Severus decide to become a Death Eater and what made him change his mind.

By the time Dobby came to deliver food, they were closer than they had ever been. They were getting on so well that Dobby's interruption didn't cause them to feel awkward.

Minerva actually fainted when she found Harry and Severus the next day, naked and spooning each other. Her plan had worked better than she had expected it to.

_I'm sorry I can't do sex scenes I tried to I really did. _


End file.
